


Piper and Alex’s Vacation to the Sunny Island of SHU

by ChiselBlock



Category: Orange is the New Black
Genre: F/F, Jail, John Bennett - Freeform, Love, Scott O'Neill - Freeform, Shu - Freeform, Tiffany 'Pennsatucky' Doggett, Wanda Bell - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-09
Updated: 2014-09-09
Packaged: 2018-02-16 18:19:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2279925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChiselBlock/pseuds/ChiselBlock
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Alex steps out to get some air and clear her head on the night of the Christmas pageant, she stumbles across Piper knocking the living daylights out of Pennsatucky. (This is what I thought might happen during the long hiatus between the first and second seasons. What actually happened was way better. Damn those Orange writers are good!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Piper and Alex’s Vacation to the Sunny Island of SHU

Alex and Piper’s Vacation to the Sunny Island of SHU

The ride in the van had been tense and quiet. The only sound was that of the creaky shocks putting up a fight along the potholed road. Morello had been busy pushing out baby Jesus, so it had been one of the guard’s who had driven them down the hill. Neither Piper nor Alex had said a word during their brief and bumpy journey together. Not that they could have struck up a conversation as two impassive guards sat between them. Piper was in the seat behind the driver, her head resting against the metal grill on the window. Her hair had fallen slightly over her face, revealing part of the fish tattoo on her neck and that vein she always complained about, the same one that Alex loved to trace with her fingers when they were lying in bed together. The last time had been just a few days ago, on her rock hard bunk, but it might as well have been at the Four Seasons in the Seychelles. When Alex and Piper were together, everything else was background. Alex had been so happy a few days ago, spooning with the woman she thought she’d lost forever. But deep down she knew. She knew Piper would pick him. Pick Larry over her. He’d be a safe reliable pair of hands. Someone you could bet your house on, but someone who’d never wake you up at three in the morning to rage about the sucky ending of the book she’d just finished, or to surprise you with a sunset trip to Angkor Wat. No, Larry would never do that. 

They passed through several giant wire fences, topped with a layer of razor-wire icing. Alex’s stomach began to sink. Piper and Nichols’ descriptions of the SHU had been enough to scare her. But when Alex saw Piper bent over Pennsatucky in the snow, she had acted on pure instinct. She’d raced towards Piper, screaming her name, but she hadn’t heard her. Piper had been too busy raining blow after blow down on Doggett. It wasn’t until Alex caught hold of her arm on the upswing that Piper even realised anyone else was outside. 

“Alex?” 

Piper’s crazed questioning features had scared the shit out of her.

“Piper, what the fuck?” 

In her confused state Piper had attempted to carry on where she had left off with Doggett. Alex had had to wrestle her off of Pennsatucky, struggling with her thrashing arms and legs until she finally managed to get on top of her and pin her writhing arms beside her head in the snow. 

“Get the fuck off me!”  
“Piper, stop!”   
“She was trying to kill me!”  
“Really? Coz from where I was standing it looked pretty much like you were the one who was trying to kill her.”   
“She came at me with a sharpened crucifix, Alex. What the fuck was I meant to do?”

Alex looked back over her shoulder to Pennsatucky who was making strange gurgling noises. 

“Fuck!”   
“I’m sorry, Alex. I’m sorry. When she knocked that screwdriver out of my hand I just¬–”  
“What? A screwdriver? Have you lost your fucking mind?! You know what’ll happen if you get caught with that?” 

Alex’s head had shot up from being an inch away from Piper’s face. She scanned the snow. The red handled screwdriver was easy to spot against the white background. Alex raced over to it. She wiped the handle and shaft with the cuff of her jacket and then launched it as hard as she could over the wire fence. It tumbled through the air and landed silently out of sight somewhere in the darkness. 

“Someone’s going to find it, Alex.” Said Piper, as she struggled to her feet.  
“Maybe we’ll get lucky and one of the other prisoners will pick it up first. Even if a guard does find it, no one’s going to tie it to you.”

Alex stared at Piper’s beautiful adorkable face. She felt the desire to protect her prick up again, stronger than ever, even after all these years.

“Congratulations, you’re off the hook– almost.”   
“Almost?” 

Alex looked over to Pennsatucky and shook her head. 

“You fucked her up pretty good.”   
“What are we going to do?”   
“You’re not going to do anything.”

Alex’s legs began to shake. 

“What?”  
“I’m sorry, Pipes.” Said Alex, with tears welling up in her eyes. 

Piper barely had chance to register Alex’s swinging fist before it connected with her cheek. Piper fell back into the snow and clutched her face. 

“What the fuck, Alex?”   
“I’m so sorry.” 

As Piper tried to gain he feet, Alex swung again, this time striking Piper bang on the nose. When she swung again, Piper was ready for her, catching Alex’s chin with an uppercut. Alex stumbled backwards. When she looked up from the bloodied snow at her feet, she saw a blur of blue and black shapes moving swiftly towards the pair of them. Alex made one last-ditch effort. She launched herself at Piper and sent them both thudding to the ground. Bennett and O’Neill dragged the pair apart, Piper still kicking and screaming at Alex as O’Neill easily overpowered her, pinned her face down on the ground and handcuffed her hands behind her back. Alex went more quietly, following Bennett’s orders to lie face down with her hands behind her back, where she too was handcuffed. 

 

There had been a strange lull in the action after Bennett had checked on Doggett and radioed for help. Piper was still furious with Alex, her flailing legs inadvertently craving out a snow angel as she tried to elicit a response from her former girlfriend.

“You fucking hit me? Really Alex, you fucking hit me?”  
“You know, I bet you’d be surprised at the amount of calories you’re burning right now.” Said O’Neill, as he tried to prevent Piper from thrashing around and hurting herself. 

Alex lay with her chin on the ground, the snow soothed her throbbing head. Damn Piper could hit hard, she thought. Must be all that focusing your energy in yoga. She knew before she swung Piper would hate her for it, but she couldn’t think of anything else to do. Alex was sure that given enough time and space Piper would come around. She had to come around. Alex had to make Piper understand that she didn’t have any other choice but to hit her. 

By the time the transport van had arrived, Piper had slipped into her version of a dignified silence, which largely meant turning her head in the opposite direction and refusing to talk or even look at Alex. 

“On your feet, Chapman!” Said Bell, leering over her. 

O’Neill helped Piper to her feet, but seeing her at eye-level caused him to grimace. Piper’s left eye was swollen and bruised, while her bloody nose had oozed across her lips, over her chin and down the side of her neck. 

Alex gasped when she saw Piper’s face, “Fuck me.”

As O’Neill and Bell lead Piper off to the van, Bennett helped Alex to her feet. 

“You OK? I mean apart from the obvious.” Said Bennett, as he straightened Alex’s wonky glasses and gestured to her bloodied chin.   
“I’m good, thanks.”  
“The cuffs OK, they’re not too tight are they? I always get a little nervous putting them on. I don’t want to damage anyone’s wrists. You know if they restrict the blood flow it can lead to irreparable nerve damage.”   
“They’re fine.” Said Alex, looking at Bennett as if he was fucking mad. 

Piper and Alex looked like a pair of newbie ice dancers as they clambered into the back of the van, their uniforms soaked and bloodied. 

“Good luck in the SHU.” Bell purred as she slammed the door shut and rapped the side of the van twice. 

As the transport van pulled away, O’Neill swung the gate shut and locked it.

“Great! We’re going to be up half the night filling out fucking paper work.” Said Bell.   
“You think we should have got them chairs? I feel bad about not letting them up.”  
“It’s in the rule book, Bennett. You have to keep a prisoner restrained until back up arrives.”   
“You know I’m not sure if that’s technically true and besides the rule book doesn’t mention what to do if it’s been snowing.”   
“Listen Bennett, they made their beds, now they can lie in them– in the SHU.” 

Bell strode off across the yard. 

“I hear you brother” – O’Neill whispered once Bell had slipped a few paces ahead – “The rule book takes no account of the variables.” 

Ten minutes of lying in the snow had left Piper’s uniform soggy and clingy and her body frigid. She had begun to shake uncontrollably, an act she was desperate for Alex not to see. She didn’t want her to think she was weak. To disguise the shaking, Piper leant up against the metal grill on the window. This at least kept her head still, while the cool of the metal also helped to soothe her swollen face. Piper could feel Alex’s eyes on her. She wanted to turn round and smash her in the face. She wanted to cause Alex as much pain as she had caused her. She wanted to ruin Alex’s life like she had ruined hers. But what she wanted most was to stop fucking loving her. Luckily for Piper, pulsating bolts of pain, and flashes of light were increasingly bullying thoughts of Alex from her mind. By the time they arrived at the SHU, Piper was desperate to lie down and close her eyes. 

Alex shook as the guards lead her out of the van and into a ramshackle brick building that looked like it belonged in a Dickens novel. But Alex’s shaking wasn’t a result of the cold. She shook out of fear. This was what she had been afraid of when she was arrested. It’s the reason she’d rolled over on the others. The reason she’d even ratted out Piper. Even the foulest smelling bunkie was better than solitary confinement, and having nothing but your own thoughts for company. She’d had to deal with a few days of it back at the county lockup and it had tormented her. Solitary forces you to come face to face with yourself. There are no distractions: no TV, no card games, no job. It’s just you and your thoughts, 24 hours a day. Alex didn’t want to think her thoughts; she wanted to bury them. 

The two women were guided through a maze of secure metal doors that buzzed and banged before and after they pasted through them. When they reached the SHU, they were ushered to two vacate cells next door to one another. 

“Now you two aren’t going to give me any shit are you?” 

The burly guard glared at Piper and Alex who were standing side by side like naughty school children in the principal’s office. 

“Nope.” Said Piper, nonchalantly as the handcuffs were slipped off her wrists.   
“In you get, Chapman.” 

Alex watched Piper stroll into the cell and sit down as if she were casually taking a seat at Starbucks. When Piper looked up from the bunk, she caught a glimpse of Alex, her face etched with fear. And then she was gone; the cell door slammed shut. 

“I’m not going to hear a peep out of you either, right?” Said the guard, as he removed Alex’s handcuffs.   
“No, Sir.” 

Alex shuffled over the threshold. The door clanked shut behind her. 

“Sleep tight, ladies.” 

The guard’s jangling keys were lost to the ear-splitting sound of a woman wailing incomprehensible sentences. 

“Knock it off!” 

The guard rapped one of the cell doors, but this was met with a torrent of variously arranged ‘fuck yous’. 

Alex surveyed the surreal scene that lay before her: a steel toilet, a tiny shelf, a scratched metal square on the wall that at one time had given up a reflection, but that now merely broke up the monotony of the shit stained wall. On the bright side, at least the bunk had a mattress, which Alex eased herself onto, wrapping the scratchy grey blanket around her shivering shoulders as the smell of disinfectant swirled around her nostrils. Alex lowered her head into her hands. She felt defeated. 

It didn’t take long for Alex to start losing her grip on reality. With no window for natural light to flow through, or watch to check, Alex could only guess how long she’d been in the SHU. And she was guessing that time ticked by much slower here than in the rest of the prison. The only thing that seemed to calm her busy mind was pacing the cell, not that it required much effort with her long legs. 

“Alex!” 

Alex stopped. She was sure someone had just called her name. She listened, but when she heard nothing she continued pacing.

“Alex!”

Alex had come to an abrupt halt again. It had definitely been her name that time. She just couldn’t be sure if the voice she had heard was real or not. Was it all in her head? Was she losing it already? 

“Alex!”

It was. It was real. And it had come from that dusty grate on the wall near the floor by the door to the cell. Alex bent down on the ground and peered into the darkness. Only it wasn’t dark when she got eye-level with the grate. At the other end was a square of light, and within that square was a face that stared back at her. 

“Piper?”  
“Uh, finally– Will shut the fuck up!”   
“What?”

Alex still wasn’t trustful of what she was seeing. 

“With the pacing and muttering to yourself and shit. You’re driving me fucking crazy!” 

The grate was empty. Piper was gone. 

“Piper, wait! 

The square of light was empty and Alex was left to wonder if Piper had ever really been there at all. 

“Piper?” Said Alex, as she stared into the grate. 

Piper heard Alex sigh. 

“I think I’m going crazy.” 

Piper smiled bitterly and said quietly to herself, “Welcome to the club.” 

 

The meatloaf tasted as bad as it looked. Alex had plucked the tray from the slot in the door and gingerly inspected it. She was hungry so she’d given it a shot, but she’d soon spat it back out onto the tray.

“OK, I know we’re not speaking generally right now, but we need to talk about the meatloaf!” Said Alex, as she clawed left over pieces of meatloaf from her mouth.

Alex could hear the slot in Piper’s door as it opened and shut again. She knew Piper could hear her.

“You’re ignoring me. I get it. I won’t bother you again.” 

On the other side of the grate, Piper poked at her meatloaf. She was agitated and desperate not to respond to Alex’s repeated attempts to coax a conversation out of her, but before she could stop them, the words had tumbled over her lips.

“It’s better if you hold your nostrils. That way you don’t taste it as it’s going down.” 

Alex tried again, this time with her fingers clasped over her nose. It worked– sort of.

“Not that I can do that, since you broke my nose and all.”   
“How long have you been holding onto that one?”   
“Since you broke my nose.”

Alex smiled and shook her head.

“I had to make it look like a fair fight, Piper. You’d be on your way to Max now if I hadn’t.” 

There was a long silence.

“I know.” Said Piper, reluctantly.  
“It’s OK, you don’t have to thank me. It’s fine. I just got myself looked up in the SHU helping you out, but it’s fine.”   
“Thank you? Are you serious? You’re the one who started this whole fucking feud with Pennsatucky in the first place. I tried to stop it!”  
“By what batting your eyes at Caputo? Yeah, you really put yourself in the firing line there, Piper.”   
“Oh fuck you, Alex!” 

Alex heard Piper’s tray collide with the wall. 

“You feel better for that?”  
“No!” 

Piper and Alex leaned their backs to one another, a foot of concrete separating them. 

“You really fucking scared me, Pipes.” 

Piper looked at the remains of her meatloaf as it peeled itself off the wall and dropped onto the worn floor.

“I scared me too. I couldn’t stop, Alex. I just couldn’t stop hitting her. And hitting her” – Tears welled up in Piper’s eyes – “You think she’s OK?”

Alex heard the emotion in Piper’s voice.

“Yeah, she’ll be totally fine. Meth heads are pretty fucking resilient. Besides, she better be OK, otherwise we’re both fucked. You think Larry will still visit you in some maximum-security prison across the country? You think he’s going to put up with glass between you and talking through telephones? Not being able to hug each other. Not being able to touch each other for years.”   
“Well, he won’t have to now, will he? He never signed up for any of this. He thought he was dating some nice blonde lady. A little mysterious around the edges, but hey, she’s a good fuck so who cares, right?”  
“He didn’t know about any of it?”   
“Not until the Feds showed up. I just couldn’t bear to think about it. It hurt too much.”  
“Yeah.” Said Alex, as she removed her glasses and rubbed her tired eyes.  
“I’m so confused. I love Larry. I do. But I never stopped loving you, Alex. I tried. I really tried. I’m still trying.” 

Alex laid down on the floor, hear head beside the grate, looking into the square of light on the other side. 

“I love you, Piper. Even though you broke my fucking heart, I still love you.”

Piper’s face appeared within the square of light as she too laid down on the floor and peered into the grate.

“I’m sorry… for leaving. I got scared.”   
“I’m sorry too. I’m sorry I ratted you out. And I’m really sorry I broke your nose. On plus side, it does make you look like kind of bad ass.” 

Piper broke into that goofy smile Alex had always loved. 

“To be honest, I don’t think it’s broken. I mean it fucking hurts, don’t get me wrong, but I’ll live.”  
“How long do you think we’ll be here?”  
“I don’t know. Nicky got two weeks just for telling a CO to kiss her ass.”   
“Fuck. Fuck! I don’t know if I can do this. This place is flipping my out already.”  
“Look, if you can traffick drugs across international boarders, then I’m pretty sure you can handle being struck in a concrete box for a while.”  
“No, I can’t.”   
“What are you like claustrophobic?”  
“Yes.”   
“Uh, I didn’t know that.”   
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”  
“Really? Like what?”   
“Well, when I was a kid, I used to… knit.”

Piper burst out laughing. 

“Ha! As in knit one, purl one?”   
“Yeah, laugh it up.”  
“No, Alex, really, that’s amazing. Hey when we get out of here, will you knit me a sweater!”

Piper laughed so hard she snorted.

“Oh fuck off!” – Alex looked away from the grate and down at her shoes – “I didn’t say I was very good at it. Not as good as my mom. Now she was crafty. She taught me when I was little. We didn’t have a lot of money, so she made some of our clothes, which went down well with the kids at school. She was pretty good at it actually. God, I miss her.” – Alex wiped a stray tear from her check – “In a way though, I’m kind of relieved she didn’t have to see this. Visit me in prison. Fuck, she’d be devastated.”   
“Yeah. Family visits are tough… and… weird, at least with my family. Mine pretty much just ignore the fact that I’m in prison. They ask me how my day’s been, how work is, you know like I’m a regular person just hoofing it into the city everyday. They have no idea. I don’t think they really want to know.”   
“At least they come.”   
“Yeah. Not all of them… my dad.”  
“Bill?”  
Piper nods, “I’ve only spoken to him on the phone since I got here. My mom keeps making excuses for him: he’s gardening, he’s golfing, he’s busy with work.”  
“I thought he was retired.”  
“He is.”  
“Oh.”  
“I can hear the disappointment in his voice.”  
“This is all my fault.”   
“No, it’s not. I knew where the money was coming from. I made my own choices. And you were right: I was just a boring girl from Connecticut before you came along.”   
“It was my job to turn people into criminals, Piper. Even you. I can’t absolve myself. I’m exactly where I deserve to be.”   
“But you’re right. I loved it.” Said Piper, with a hollow smile. 

Alex put her hand up to the grate and stared at Piper across the void. She tried to find the right words, but too much had passed between them, and she knew Piper could spot a bullshit platitude from a mile off. So Alex merely let out a long sigh then propped her head on her folded arm. 

“We suck!”   
“Yep.” Said Piper, with a fading smiling. 

The pair looked at one another across the void. The years of separation melting away as they stared into each other’s eyes. Suddenly, Alex burped.

“God that meatloaf.”  
Piper smiled, “Just wait ‘til you try the baloney!”


End file.
